East Europe to West Coast: A Dev Story

February 09, 2013

Csaba Tóth, Márton Czebe, and Peter Schmiz recently left our Budapest office for five, slightly damp weeks in the POSSIBLE Seattle office. They joined the POSSIBLE.com redesign team to provide Sitecore expertise and front-end development support. Here are a few details from their experience.

Billy: How long have you worked in the Budapest office?

Peter: I moved to Budapest 3 years ago when I got married. It's my second year at Carnation as a front-end developer.

Billy: And what did you look forward to the most about the opportunity to work in the Seattle office for an extended period of time?

Peter: To meet people from other offices, to work together and see how you do it. Also, I've never been in the USA, so it was a really good opportunity to see the country. I also wanted to practice and improve my front-end skills. Because of the size of the project, it was a good challenge.

Billy: Before you left for Seattle, what were some of the things you expected to be different in that office from Budapest?

Peter: The language and the weather :) Just kidding... I was curious about how you cooperate, how the divisions work between design, development, social, and accounts. Also, I wanted to see how you manage the resources between projects.

Billy: And how did reality stack up to your expectations?

Peter: I was impressed by the organized project management, how flawless most of the process were. And everybody was very nice and kind to us, after one week (when the jetlag was gone) it was like working at home :)

Billy: What are the advantages you’ve experienced having the collaborative support and ability to have a short-term transfer to fuel this initiative?

Peter: Being able to make quick decisions, and discussing problems or ideas with the whole team. Also it was easier to make some design changes, modifications.

Managing the tasks and steps were also a lot easier, having everybody in one place. Doing all of this from home or from different offices is not impossible —as we continue the work now— but it’s much harder to have the same speed and problem solving capacity.

Billy: Better office bar – Seattle or Budapest?

Peter: Going to have to give +1 to Seattle here. Z-bar is very cool! We don't have a bar, but I like our fun space, where we can play after work. Your 5th floor is fantastic! It has big spaces and the decorations and paintings are awesome! Also liked the view from the 5th floor.

Billy: Seattle is the grunge-rock capital – birthplace of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and so many more. Tell me you caught a show or two at one of Seattle’s famed venues? If so – who rocked it?

Peter: I'm a big Nirvana fun, but I didn't had the time to visit any famous places related to them.

Billy: And finally, would you do it again?

Peter: In the summer? Yes. Less rain. It was fun and I really liked the people there, so definitively yes!